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Amazing Tales of People Who Got Out of Debt

It can happen to anyone.

Everything in your life is going fine. Good, stable job, appropriately priced living space, transportation costs under control, etc. Then, one day, something happens. Either it is traumatic and crushing (like becoming unemployed), something joyous (you have a baby – or, twins!), or something of such apparent inconsequence that it barely registers on your radar (…a new credit card arrives in the mail). Whether monumental or seemingly minimal, an event occurs that steers you off your straight and sensible economic track. Before you know it, you’re swimming, nay, drowning in debt. Now what?

You don’t have to get into Harvard to figure out that Harvard Business School isn’t cheap. The businessinsider.com highlighted the intriguing circumstances of Joe Mihalic, a grad from said institution who left with an impressive diploma …and a student loan debt of $101,000. After two years of making payments on this sizable loan, Joe wasn’t seeing any significant results ($22,000 paid back to the banks only saw an actual decrease of about $10,000 – because of the high interest fees). He knew he had to makes some changes: “Joe took a two-pronged approach, decreasing his spending and increasing his revenue. He got a weekend gig as a pedicab driver, started a landscaping business with his friend, bought a flask to skimp on booze spending, got a roommate for his Austin home, temporarily stopped his 401(k) contributions, and did the usual lunch-eating, restaurant-skipping money-saving tricks. It worked. In under a year, he shaved off his entire debt-load.”

In a story featured on time.com, Master Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps, Rachel Gause explained the tactics she was able to put into place to eliminate her debt (which totaled $179,625), and which allowed her to control her future expenditures. Guase explained “I use the envelope system. Before I get paid, I do my budget. Then I have 13 envelopes—one for groceries, one for clothes and shoes, one for charity, one for dining out, one for gas, and so on. I go to the bank, take the money out, and divide it between the envelopes. I don’t spend anything that doesn’t come out of those envelopes. Debit cards are nice, but swiping is less emotional. Cash makes me more aware of what I’m spending my money on. If I run out of money for something that month, I don’t buy it. But I’ve never run out of money for something important—now I’m more aware of how much I’m spending.”

Even if you make a lot of money, you can owe a lot too. After a decade of healthy spending, Travis Pizel and his wife Vonnie (both of whom have high paying jobs) had collectively racked up a credit card debt to the tune of $109,000, according to the Pizel blog Enemy of Debt. They realized the best way to combat the intimidating figure was to find a debt management plan that worked for them. By condensing all of their credit card payments into one figure of approximately $2,500 per month, and adhering to a strict budget, they found that the new order and structure made things easier for them. With 100k in the books, they are on the fast track to becoming entirely debt free quite soon.

College tennis star Ja’Net Adams was doing very well for herself after graduation, as reported by forbes.com. She lost her job, however, in the dark days of 2008. Soon after she and her husband were facing the precipice of a $50,000 financial chasm. Ja’Net knew she needed to land another full time job, but also was wise enough to focus on supplemental income as well. She explained “I started coaching private tennis lessons for $25 an hour, and my husband taught basketball lessons for four or five kids at a time, at $25 per child. This earned us $500 a week. Then I sought out easy ways to help reduce our expenses, like downgrading to basic cable, scaling back on our cell phone plans, and being conscious of how wasteful habits—like failing to turn off the lights after leaving a room—affected our utility bills. These simple adjustments saved us hundreds each month.”

Maureen Campaiola was able to devise a three year plan to eliminate $79,500 in credit card and student load debt, states wellkeptwallet.com. Her inspiring story involved a rollercoaster of economic ups and downs, but ultimately she came away with some extremely helpful wisdom in the debt management forum. Here are some of the unapologetic tips that she cultivated:

“Cut up your credit cards and don’t look back. You don’t need them and you don’t need the points.

Track your income and expenses religiously. Evaluate it regularly and make adjustments to your spending plan to meet the financial demands month to month.

Be willing to make sacrifices. If you’re not willing, you won’t be successful. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it is the truth.

Ask yourself if you need something, BEFORE you make the purchase. If you can’t honestly answer yes to that question, don’t buy it.”

If you find yourself in debt, even if the figure isn’t as astoundingly high as some of ones just listed, there are clearly a variety of steps you can take to help yourself become fully debt-liberated. Along with the helpful suggestions supplied by the people above, another method to reduce debt is to sell off any unneeded valuable items in your possession. If you have diamond jewelry that fits into that category, check out diamondlighthouse.com. We help people find the very best prices for their diamond jewelry, every day. Whether you have a one carat sized engagement ring, or a set of diamond earrings totaling 10 carats, we will find the best price for you. As evidenced from many of the debt eliminating stories in this post, every little bit can help. Find out more here.